Legends of Middle-Earth 5.0 mod for Age of Mythology: The Titans

Hey everyone, Andrew here! LOME V5.0 started just about 8 years ago now, if you can believe it. What was first a return to an old high school hobby, quickly became a staple passion in my life -- a foundational block in my lifestream. No matter how low things went, or how insurmountable it felt like things were, LOME was always a great way to create my own corner of the world, and it's been fantastic so far.

Over the years, I've become a seasoned game designer -- a professional artist, a business owner, and also soon to be -- a father!

Excluding that last point, LOME really has been the stepping stone that's gotten me where I am. I encourage anyone who is interested in getting into game design to start with modding a game you're passionate for, it'll teach you so, so much that you need to know.

Throughout my time with LOME, I've learned about:

1. Balancing a game
2. Casting and directing voice talent
3. 3d modeling and animation
4. Building and maintaining 3d motion capture faculties
5. Texture art, iconography, and character designing
6. Scoring music to cinematic scenes
7. Sound design, recording and mixing
8. Building a community, and engaging with players, including how to deal with criticism
9. Writing screenplay script
10. Graphic designing for logos and other promo material

Truly, I'm absolutely grateful for the budding skillset that this game has taught me. It is, with a heavy heart, however, that I must announce:

Back in spring 2023, we saw the 1.3 update that gave the Orc civs a sprawling rework, including new techs/icons/models/units, the complete works.

We also saw the release of the LOTR RPG campaign demo, a persistent campaign with hero level ups and more that saved between levels. Unfortunately, there was simply too much work to go around, and not enough hands, so it put to the way side. Now, I know I've said this before, but I've really only meant "hiatus", but I think this time, I'm really ready to let go, and move on to greater things.

It's time to pack up the ol' "LOME HD" folder, which houses all of my textures, icons, and reference materials throughout the mods development.

Clocking in at about 6.4gb, with over 31,000 files, this is the folder in which I kept ANYTHING that had to do with LOME, excluding sound files, they got their own folders. Created on August 1, 2016, the true start of the adventure that LOME has come to today. Ahh, I was so young, brash -- handsome even! A mere 19 year old man -- I am now 27! And last but not least -- over 40 articles posted to Moddb over the years! Thanks so much for reading and staying tuned everyone!!

Since 1.3, there has been a host of smaller updates, mostly balance and bug fixing, so if you still enjoy playing the mod, I will most likely still be supporting small bug fix patches, when bugs are reported. Mr. Agree in the Discord is very frequent about bug reports, which has my eternal gratitude is given to for.

Odyssey is the culmination of all these skills LOME has taught me over the years put into my own, original 2D RPG game. It's a fully voice acted game, with story, exploration, and much more! PLAY THE DEMO FOR IT, AND DON'T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME, TOO!

Yeah, I don't really care.

TL;DR, I would like to maintain being an active modder for Retold, but probably only in regards to working with other modders that I know and like, such as XLightningStormL of "Expanded Mod" acclaim.

Until next time, lads. The last 8 years have been an absolute blast -- and no matter what horrible things have come and gone, I wouldn't change anything about them. These experiences make us who we are, and only one thing is certain: You will only ever have yourself, so I hope you like who you are.

Farewell, and be good! See you when my game, Odyssey of Dremid'ir releases next Spring!